FAMINE EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS NETWORK  

FEWS NET Annual Team Meeting   Fiscal Year 2020   

DISCLAIMER  

This report is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this report are the sole responsibility of Kimetrica LLC and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.   

 

CONTENTS 

AGENDA ii 

WELCOMING REMARKS 1 

INTRODUCTIONS 1 

SUMMARY RECAP OF AWARDS TO DATE 1 

REMARKS ON THE PILLAR 1 EARLY WARNING TASK ORDER 6 

HIGHLIGHTS OF PILLAR 1 EW ACTIVITIES 9 

REMARKS ON THE PILLAR 2 HUB TASK ORDER 13 

HIGHLIGHTS OF PILLAR 2 TO ACTIVITIES 15 

REMARKS ON SCIENCE TEAM ACTIVITIES 19 

HIGHLIGHTS OF USGS ACTIVITIES 19 

HIGHLIGHTS OF UCSB ACTIVITIES 25 

HIGHLIGHTS OF NOAA/CPC ACTIVITIES 26 

HIGHLIGHTS OF NOAA/PSD ACTIVITIES 27 

HIGHLIGHTS OF NASA ACTIVITIES 28 

HIGHLIGHTS OF USDA ACTIVITIES 31 

REMARKS ON PILLAR 3 32 

OPEN DISCUSSION – Q&A 34 

SUMMARY OF KEY DECISIONS AND FOLLOW-UP ACTIONS 34 

ANNEX I 35 

PARTICIPANTS LIST 35  

 

i 

AGENDA  Purpose: A business meeting for all FEWS NET implementing partners to review the status of contracts and agreements, and to share highlights of ongoing technical work.   5 min  Welcoming remarks  P. Lee, B. Bacon  

10 min  Introductions  J. Verdin  

10 min  Summary recap of awards to date  J. Verdin  

5 min  Remarks on the Pillar 1 EW Task Order  S. Wilson  

15 min  Highlights of Pillar 1 EW activities  L. Glaeser  

5 min  Remarks on the Pillar 2 Hub Task Order  R. Williams  

15 min  Highlights of Pillar 2 TO activities  F. Riely  

10 min  Break  

5 min  Remarks on Science Team activities  A. McNally  

5 min  Highlights of USGS activities  J. Rowland  

5 min  Highlights of UCSB activities  G. Husak  

5 min  Highlights of NOAA/CPC activities  W. Thiaw  

5 min  Highlights of NOAA/PSD activities  A. Hoell  

5 min  Highlights of NASA activities  K. Slinski  

5 min  Highlights of USDA activities  J. Williams  

5 min  Remarks on Pillar 3  J. Verdin, P. Steffen  

30 min  Open discussion – Q&A  All  

5 min  Review of post-meeting actions  J. Verdin  

Adjourn  

 

ii 

WELCOMING REMARKS Patrice Lee, Contract Officer, opens the meeting. Brian Bacon, Division Chief, Technical, Learning and Planning Division of Office of Food for Peace introduces the meeting noting this is the 35th year of Famine Early Warning under the FEWS NET banner. The FEWS NET project has provided decades of global leadership in the intersections of food security and international development. Bacon expressed his gratitude to all that are working under the stressful conditions posed by the global COVID-19 pandemic. He also acknowledged the team’s dedication, which is particularly significant right now as the world faces immediate and anticipated impacts on food security as a result of the pandemic.   

INTRODUCTIONS Jim Verdin, FEWS NET IDIQ Contract Officer’s Representative, asked all participants to introduce themselves. See Annex I for a complete list of names and associations of participants. 

SUMMARY RECAP OF AWARDS TO DATE 

1 

 

2 

3 

4 

 

   5 

REMARKS ON THE PILLAR 1 EARLY WARNING TASK ORDER   

6 

7 

   

8 

HIGHLIGHTS OF PILLAR 1 EW ACTIVITIES 

9 

10 

11 

 

12 

REMARKS ON THE PILLAR 2 HUB TASK ORDER 

13 

 

14 

HIGHLIGHTS OF PILLAR 2 TO ACTIVITIES 

15 

16 

17 

 

18 

REMARKS ON SCIENCE TEAM ACTIVITIES The team of Principal Investigators (PIs) has a unique ability to contextualize their research in the larger food security community. They are particularly skilled at communicating how their research impacts the forecasting and reporting activities of the broader FEWS NET team. The PIs introduced a new initiative on extended outlooks where NOAA will be pushing the boundaries on rainfall and temperature forecasting, NASA will be transferring that work into variables relevant for agriculture and water resources and UCSB and USGS will be synthesizing this information and working with the regional scientists to implement new forecasts. The UMD team will be working on the mapping and communications aspects through their crop monitor as well. With that overview, the specific teams presented their work below. 

HIGHLIGHTS OF USGS ACTIVITIES 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

 

24 

HIGHLIGHTS OF UCSB ACTIVITIES  

 

25 

HIGHLIGHTS OF NOAA/CPC ACTIVITIES 

26 

HIGHLIGHTS OF NOAA/PSD ACTIVITIES  

 

   

27 

HIGHLIGHTS OF NASA ACTIVITIES  

28 

29 

 

30 

HIGHLIGHTS OF USDA ACTIVITIES Junko Williams, US Department of Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Service (USDA/FAS) Participating Agency Service Agreement (PASA) Manager, briefed the meeting on the history of USAID’s relationship with FEWS NET that spans three decades and a series of agency service agreements. The most recent agreement was instituted in2017, with USAID providing overall management. The 2017 agreement also covers technical assistance from FAS, including the Southern and East Africa crop assessment projects run by Curt Reynolds at USDA. 

   

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REMARKS ON PILLAR 3 

    

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At this time, there are no task orders in Pillar 3 (P3). However, it is a key part of FEWS NET’s new structure and functions. Phil Steffen, USAID FFP Program Manager, who joined the team in late January 2020 and is a returning FEWS NET alum, will take the lead on moving P3 forward. Steffen reviewed the nature of P3, which will look at the dynamics of food, nutrition, and livelihoods security. P3 analyses will deepen understanding of underlying causes of food insecurity that will support the team’s development of appropriate responses. The aim of P3 is to help the entirety of USAID beyond FFP to strengthen all its food security programming. Verdin added that the FEWS NET management team at USAID are spreading the word across the agency to make use of this mechanism when the task order begins. 

 

   

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OPEN DISCUSSION – Q&A  Greg Husak opened with a question on how merging of FFP and OFDA may impact the focus of FEWS NET and are there any anticipated changes in focus on FEWS NET? Jim Verdin replied that P3’s extensive list of topics suggests that the portion of the new Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs (BHA) that originates from OFDA may want to use P3 to address aspects of disaster responses that fall under their responsibility. Brian Bacon is working to integrate these two offices within the new bureau. Bacon is in active discussion with OFDA to make FEWS NET as relevant as possible to the evolving needs within BHA. FEWS NET will be housed in the new Office of Technical and Learning Quality. FEWS NET will be prominent in this new structure and within the new bureau. He anticipates P3 work will support BHA’s new mandate with tools and analysis that FEWS NET will undertake. OFDA itself is a large consumer of FEWS NET products and services traditionally, and this is expected to grow as we integrate sectoral dimensions of OFDA’s portfolio which has not been part of FFP in the past.   

Patrice Lee inquired if the presentations will be made available. Frank Reily responded that the full report will be available within a week, including slides from the day’s sessions.  

SUMMARY OF KEY DECISIONS AND FOLLOW-UP ACTIONS After all participants presented, the key decision from the meeting is to have a follow-up meeting in 2021 as specified in the IDIQ. The Hub will produce the minutes from this meeting for future reference. 

 

   

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ANNEX I 

PARTICIPANTS LIST 

Patrice Lee  USAID OAA Contract Officer Lucillyn Susi  USAID OAA Contract Specialist  Katherine Cooper USAID OAA Contract Specialist Brian Bacon  USAID FFP Division Chief, Technical, Learning & Planning Jim Verdin  USAID FFP COR, IDIQs Shannon Wilson  USAID FFP COR, Pillar 1 Early Warning Task Order Romaine Williams  USAID FFP COR, Pillar 2 Hub Task Order Kevin Coffey  USAID FFP Alt COR, Pillar 2 Hub Task Order Phil Steffen  USAID FFP Program Manager Dan Houston  USAID FFP Program Manager Amy McNally  USAID FFP Activity Manager, Agroclimatology Abi Swain  USAID FFP Program Specialist Felix Lee  Chemonics IDIQ Contract Manager Laura Glaeser  Chemonics COP, Pillar 1 Early Warning Task Order Laura Petruzelli  Chemonics Project Director Julie Mandolini-Trummel  Kimetrica IDIQ Contract Manager Frank Riely  Kimetrica Director, Pillar 2 Hub Task Order Sarah Gavian  Kimetrica Senior Early Warning Specialist Peter Hobby  Kimetrica Knowledge and Learning Manager Roger Hunwicks  Kimetrica Data Manager Andrew Somers Kimetrica Software Project Manager Betsy Ness-Edelstein  Abt IDIQ Contract Manager Chuck Chopak  DAI IDIQ Contract Manager Richard Choularton  Tetra Tech IDIQ Contract Manager Merideth Mallory Tetra Tech Associate Ben Rineheart Tetra Tech, Associate Jim Rowland  USGS Principal Investigator Chris Funk USGS Research Geographer Mike Budde USGS Geographer Wasslia Thiaw  NOAA CPC Principal Investigator Andy Hoell  NOAA PSL Principal Investigator Roger Pulwarty NOAA Physical Sciences Division Christa Peters-Lidard  NASA Principal Investigator Kim Slinski  NASA Technical Lead Greg Husak  UCSB Principal Investigator Curt Reynolds  USDA FAS Technical Lead  Junko Williams  USDA FAS PASA Manager Tashon Herndon USDA FAS PASA Manager  

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